Travel Insurance for China

If you can’t afford travel insurance for China, you can’t afford to travel to China.

Somebody once shared this quote with me, and after over a decade of travel experience, I couldn’t agree more. I know it might seem like a waste of money at first, but too many personal stories to know that it’s not.

Travel Insurance for China

Travel insurance is a good idea — most travelers need the peace of mind of having their bases covered in the unlikely event something goes wrong.

As you can imagine, there’s a wide range of options. You can find any combination of travel insurance plans and providers to cover you for a variety of risks including:

Trip Protection or “cancellation coverage,” which reimburses you if you cancel your trip due to illness, death in the family, or some other unforeseen delay or events (e.g., airline strike, Icelandic volcano, etc).

Medical/Emergency Coverage: Can include everything from covering hospital/dental bills to emergency evacuation to accidental death and dismemberment policy.

Luggage Coverage: Covers you if your baggage/property is stolen or lost.

Before you buy any travel insurance, check to see what you’re covered for under your existing medical policy. For instance, BlueCross BlueShield actually has worldwide network of providers that includes Hong Kong and Beijing. Similarly, credit cards also provide a lot of travel-related services that most travelers don’t know about. Although this is helpful, the fact is that it usually isn’t nearly enough for what you’ll need.

Determine your exact needs first. Travel insurance has gone from one-size-fits-all to a la carte so you’ll have a lot of flexibility to customize your plan. For example, with World Nomads (the travel insurance company I use), you can tailor your plan based on whether you expect to take part in any high-risk activities like bungee jumping.

Read the fine print. For instance, unlike World Nomads, many travel insurance companies don’t cover high-risk activities such as certain adventure sports & activities (or will charge higher rates to include them). Also, many policies won’t cover you if you did something bone-headed while you were drunk.

At the very least, consider “evacuation insurance.” If you get sick or injured, you’ll be flown home or to the whatever nearby medical facility your insurer deems necessary. For example, American Express’ Global Travel Shield offers an annual plan at about $60.

I encourage you to get a quote from multiple agencies to see how they can cover your needs for travel insurance in China. As I said earlier, I use World Nomads, and you can easily get a quote by using the form below.